Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is touting an endorsement from an economist who helped Ronald Reagan develop so-called “supply side” economics.

Earlier this fall economist Arthur Laffer praised former GOP candidate Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan, but Laffer now says Gingrich has the “best plan” for the jobs and the economy of any candidate currently in the field. Gingrich talked about Laffer last night in Le Mars.

“I come out of a background starting in the late 1970s of working with Jack Kemp and Art Laffer and…a whole range of economists to develop a model called supply side economics that says if you cut taxes and you cut regulations and you develop American energy and you encourage the people who create jobs, you have dramatic economic growth,” Gingrich said.

Gingrich said that approach is at odds with President Obama’s economic vision.

“The other team comes out of a background of government control, government domination and the president’s probably the worst example of this in modern times,” Gingrich said in Le Mars. “He really believes in a big government model where you raise taxes, increase regulations, are anti-American energy and attack the people who create jobs through class warfare.”

Gingrich is campaigning in Sioux City this morning and plans stops in Storm Lake, Denison and Carroll this afternoon.

(Additional reporting by Dennis Morrice, KLEM, Le Mars)